So the picture above is of the lovely public botanical garden in the Palermo neighborhood of Bs.As. It’s large and, as you might expect, filled with plants, flowers, a few greenhouses and, interestingly, cats (people drop unwanted cats there, the place is crawling with them). However, I was recently told that the garden was closed for several months a year ago for a very surprising reason: garden employees had allowed the grounds to be turned into a special cemetery for those willing to pay. According to newspaper articles, several garden employees permitted “special” clients to bury urns containing cremated ashes or, on rare occasions, actual bodies within the garden’s grounds.  An article from Diario Perfil says that there 100+ burials and that people paid up to A$1300 (about U$333) for the privilege of burying their dead there. Apparently it was only discovered when an employee felt guilty and fessed up.

Frankly, I’m not surprised that this happened. Argentines are known for having a corrupt government, and I guess that even trickles down to municipal employees.  I am surprised, however, that I didn’t hear about this earlier! The botanical garden is really well-known and Argentines looove a scandal, so how did this escape the news? (Or was I just oblivious?)